Visualizing Comics on the iPad

Steve Jobs didn’t specifically talk about comics and other visually-intensive ebooks on the iPad, but it does fix many of the graphics and usability issues that severely limited the comics-reading utility of the monochrome e-readers and bulky tablet PCs that came before.

With its large color screen, slim form factor and long battery life, it may well be the reading device that comics fans have been waiting for.

While we await the iPad’s arrival, I wanted to visualize just how the iPad might work as a comics-reading machine. I fired up Photoshop and plugged in a couple of screens from the Witchblade books on WOWIO. What do you think?

Sony Readers, Library Software for Mac — Soon

If you’re a Mac user using a Sony Reader, you’ve been compelled to use various workarounds to get content onto your device. While the third-party software allows the addition of ebooks from other sources, Sony’s own ebook store can only be accessed using the official Windows-based eBook Library software.

With surging Mac mind (and market) share — along with competition from cross-platform ebook readers like the Kindle — it looks like Sony is finally going to provide official Mac support by “the end of Summer 2009” (see the announcement reproduced below). The original PRS500 Reader is conspicuously absent from the announcement — perhaps it’s unsupported but still compatible as a discontinued model?

Sony Announcement, July 7, 2009

Attention Mac users!

We’ve received many requests to make the eBook Store work with Apple® Macintosh® computers, and we wanted to share with you our progress on this front.

An updated version of the eBook Library Software compatible with Mac OS X operating systems will be available by the end of Summer 2009 for download to your computer to enable you to purchase, organize and download content to your PRS505 and PRS700.

Send us your email address, and we will notify you when the update is available.

Thank you,

Your Friends at The eBook Store

iPhone + Ebooks: Partial Solutions, July Dreams

With the recent beta release of the iPhone SDK and the corresponding system software update due in July, reading ebooks on the iPhone (and iTouch) will finally become a straightforward, typically Apple experience. A PDF reader should appear particularly quickly given that the format is native on the iPhone’s flavor of OS X, just as it is with its cousin, the Mac. The other piece of the puzzle — local file handling and storage — will undoubtedly be high on developers’ lists.

When July and its expected tidal wave of iPhone apps arrive, our book reading problems should be solved.

In the meantime, though, the options for reading available today have evolved quite a bit since I last surveyed the scene. For example, the web app Readdle has been around since last summer, providing free hosting space for files up to 5MB — 50 MB total — for non-DRM PDF (like ebooks from WOWIO) and other files including doc, fb2, gif, html, jpeg, rtf, txt, xls and pdb. Uploading an ebook or other document to this private, password-protected space allows you to read it anywhere with Internet access.

Navigating Readdle.

Other nice features include a Mac app to simplify uploads (though the web interface and email interfaces are fine too), user-definable categories for organizing files and an option for creating a Safari bookmark for offline reading. Unfortunately, the latter is limited to very small files less than 100kb, limiting its usefulness.

As you can see from the screenshots, the web app works well and as advertised. The iPhone-friendly interface is clean and nicely implemented. My books, like Lydia Millet’s Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, are easily accessed, along with a small collection of public domain titles provided by Readdle.

The only major limitations — and they’re significant ones — are the file size limit and lack of bookmarking for PDFs. 5MB per file is a bit skimpy for larger PDFs, particularly graphics-laden titles like comics or visually-oriented nonfiction, along with text titles built from scanned pages. This is an understandable limit, however, given Safari’s tendency to crash when opening files above 8MB. I suspect Readdle is being conservative to maintain a stable user experience. Bookmarking is another longstanding issue, and one that’s common to all available PDF reading solutions on the iPhone. Readdle does provide bookmarking for books in html, txt, rtf and pdb formats, but the nature of PDF makes this impossible to do from a web browser.

To resolve these limitations shared by Readdle and every other Mobile Safari-based reading solution, we’re once again left waiting for the solutions that are likely to arrive in July. Soon, soon…

A page from Oh Pure and Radiant Heart on the iPhone via Safari and Readdle.

Related Posts

iPhone Reader: The Long Sessions
iPhone and eBooks: an Early Flirtation
iPhone and iPod: Dense Pixels, Happy Eyes
eBook Reader Technology Scorecard
iPhone + Comics: (Not) Seeing the Big Picture
iPhones and eBooks: The Video

It’s the Thought that Counts? Gifting in a Virtual World

As social networking has become a fixture in our lives, it’s only natural that the personal exchanges that occur in our offline lives — like gifting — are migrating to the virtual realm, too. I’ve looked on with some curiosity as the concept of virtual gifting has taken hold in Facebook and other venues. Can gifts that exist purely in digital form really take the place of tangible, physical presents?

On Facebook, gifts often take the form of graphical tokens that are sold for a small cost (typically $1) and are displayed on the recipient’s profile. They have no functionality beyond the symbolic — their value comes from being tokens of good will or affection, along with being the virtual approximation of a very visible display of flowers delivered at the office.

Virtual gifting in Facebook.

So are people really buying these things?

I’ve personally sent some of the freebie versions of the Facebook gifts in the past year. Apparently, I believed that these tokens had some value both to the recipient and to me since I went to the trouble of sending them. On the other hand, I was never convinced enough to actually spend real money. By some estimates, however, Facebook is currently selling them at a rate of about 270,000 gifts per week — equivalent to $15 million in revenue, annually. Clearly, a lot of people are not like me — for them, the nominal monetary cost is outweighed by the convenience and symbolic value.

At WOWIO, we’ve been thinking about this phenomenon and considering it against the more traditional venues for gift giving, such as greeting cards and physical objects like books. WOWIO’s ebooks straddle the line between virtual and physical — as digital files, they’re clearly in the virtual realm, but as a medium for ideas and communication, they’re not so different from their paper counterparts. Further, the ebook’s written content has a powerful inherent symbolism that can go far beyond the purely visual representations of Facebook-style tokens.

Given this natural fit, we developed a new feature at the WOWIO site that allows registered users to gift ebooks in just this way. In sending my own ebook gifts, the process is remarkably familiar — it’s not unlike shopping for a paper-based gift book. I find a title that fits with the purpose of the gift and resonates with my relationship with the recipient, virtually wrap it in a decorated dust jacket appropriate to the occasion, and write a note on the ebook’s inside cover. The big difference is in the immediacy and relatively low cost of the gift. Delivery is as instantaneous as the Internet can make it, while the pricing ($3–5) makes it much more of an impulse gift, like Facebook’s tokens.

Gifting a WOWIO ebook.

It will be fascinating to see how this fares in the coming months. If any of you are using (or even just thinking about using) this feature, I’d love to hear how you are using it and what you think of the process.

Travel and eBooks: A Jet-Lagged Perspective

Having just returned from a trans-Pacific journey involving 20+ hour flight times, I can now say that long, economy-class encapsulation has given me a new perspective on the relative qualities of ebook readers.

In preparation for the travel, I loaded up the iPhone, the Sony Reader and the MacBook Pro with titles. The choices I made among my reading devices are telling — notably missing is the X61T Tablet PC, since I didn’t want to haul a second laptop-sized machine in addition to my primary Mac. If you plan to travel with a laptop and you also want to use a tablet computer as an ebook reader, make sure those two machines are one in the same. Otherwise, be prepared to consistently leave one of them behind (or risk a sore back). The iPhone came along by default, since I needed a phone and texting device. The laptop was optional, but I wanted to bring it along so I could process photographs on the road. The Sony almost stayed home, but its small footprint and low weight made it an easy last minute addition despite my already-overloaded messenger bag.

Even before getting on the plane, I knew I wouldn’t be using the Mac for reading purposes. With a battery life of just 2-4 hours (and aircraft power ports limited to Business Class), it had little chance of making it through even the short hops, much less the main ocean crossing. I saved it for computer-specific tasks.

The iPhone looked better on paper, given its multi-faceted functionality, long-ish battery life and its status as my current-favorite reader. Unfortunately, the iPhone’s current software shortcomings got in the way of using it for reading. The hack I use to access PDFs requires access to the Apache web server that I installed, but when the iPhone is in airplane mode, Mobile Safari is blocked from accessing the server. While I could still view the PDFs with either the Mobile Mail program or the third-party PDFViewer v0.3, neither method enables landscape viewing (necessary for readable text sizes without horizontal scrolling) and the latter is too immature to use reliably.

In the end, the Sony’s seemingly inexhaustible battery life made it the only useful device for reading on the long-duration flights. I easily fit my wife’s and my own reading choices on an SD card, with multiple titles for each of us (her primary read turned out to be Cat’s Cradle while I finished up Letters from St. Petersburg and started Some Sunny Day). Such an extended selection would have been impractical in print format. Unlike my last trip, however, I made no attempt to use an ebook travel guide, since the limited navigation and slow response on the Sony had previously proven useless for reference tasks. We lugged along an old-fashioned (and bulky) paper version of Lonely Planet Philippines instead.

The next time I need to cross an ocean, I’m looking forward to further advances in the state of the ebook reading art. While the Sony turned out to be a pretty workable solution, I’d ideally still prefer to carry a single device for all of my in-flight entertainment needs. With the iPhone software development kit promised for next February, its ebook software situation should be up to speed soon. Its fast and flexible interface would also enable Lonely Planet-style reference look-ups, which will allow me to leave that last heavy chunk of paper at home.

Details on Amazon’s Kindle Reader (updated)

(updated with additional details from the Kindle User’s Guide)
Newsweek.com has posted a lengthy piece on ebooks and digital reading focusing on Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and the upcoming Kindle, entitled The Future of Reading.

Amongst prognostication about changes in the process of writing, distributing and reading books were a few facts about the Kindle:

display	6” E-Ink, 4 gray levels, 167 dpi (like the Sony Reader)
weight	10.3 ounces
battery life	30 hours reading 2 hours recharge
storage	200 books onboard additional via SD memory card
input	keyboard, scroll wheel
connectivity	EVDO cellphone-style broadband, USB2 Windows PC required for activation
file compatibility	Kindle (.azw), unprotected Mobipocket (.mobi, .prc), HTML, text, MS Word (.doc), Audible (.aa), mp3
price	$399

The wireless connectivity is used to connect to the Internet and the Amazon ebook store, where New York Times bestsellers and recent titles can be bought for $9.99, with older books priced lower. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are also available.

Notably, the device cannot open Adobe PDF or any other common ebook formats, including DRM’d files from Amazon’s own Mobipocket ebook store.

The Kindle is a bold entry in the dedicated reader field, with the always-on wireless connection and periodical subscriptions being the most intriguing twists. Comparisons with the iPod/iTunes ecosystem are inevitable. However, unlike the iPod, which could support content from users’ existing cd and mp3 collections, book acquisition is limited to Amazon’s own Kindle store and existing personal documents such as Word files — ebooks from all other sources are essentially excluded. With a steep $399 entry price and a largely closed supply of content, it remains to be seen whether a mass market really exists for this device…

A Personal Library for a Pixelated Future

For the sake of argument, let’s say that the future of the book is cast — ebooks in some form will dominate, with paper books reserved for special works, as gifts and for hobbyist-collectors. Book stores and public libraries have already begun (or in the case of purely-digital stores like WOWIO, have already completed) the transformation from atoms to bits, and they will continue along their evolutionary paths paralleling those of the books.

But my wife — who has been using ebooks since her med school days in the 90s — brought up a good question the other night… what about our personal libraries? What will they look like once shelves lined with paper books become the exception? Today, guests can walk up to the book case to peruse the titles, whether to find entertainment, discover new titles or perhaps gain a little insight into the books’ owners. How does that work with a mostly-digital collection?

Part of the answer may be in front of us today, with iTunes and its shared media library. The software has already transformed the browsing and sharing patterns of mainstream music listeners, with its various visual and list-oriented browsing modes and its ability to share collections across a local network. This paradigm has spread to videos, audio books, podcasts and other media types as well. Even PDFs are partially supported. Extending the idea to full-blown ebooks is only a short stretch further, with listing options modified to support book-specific content.

iTunes: one model for a future personal ebook and media library.
(click image to enlarge)

Extrapolating a bit further, all of the household’s books and other media could be shared on a primary household media machine with plenty of storage and a large, multi-touch screen for browsing or for more-focused use of music, video, games and the Internet. The ready access, sharable view and tactile experience would help retain the social and impulsive aspects of the book-browsing experience.

Casual page browsing in this scenario could be done on the large screen, but for serious reading, guests carrying iPhone-like devices could seamlessly join the local wireless network to access the household’s books (and other media). Alternatively, other types of devices in the household, like laptops or iSlates, could be borrowed for the purpose.

Browsing the touch-enabled iLibrary.

This may sound suspiciously like a Microsoft fantasy home of the future. The difference is, aside from the big-screen touch interface, genuinely usable precursors of this concept are already in wide-spread use. Not just by those on the bleeding-edge, but by second-wave adopters like me.

House MD: from media library to kitchen.

I store music and video on a living room library machine — a relatively inexpensive Mac Mini connected to a big-screen HDTV — and access it wirelessly from other rooms on laptops and other devices. For example, the photo at right shows an iTunes-purchased episode of House MD streaming from the library Mini to a MacBook Pro in the kitchen as I cook dinner.

Even closer to the hypothetical scenario, I’ve also read ebook PDFs stored in the media library on an iPhone via OS X’s built-in Web sharing (this is a workaround for the iPhone’s current file system limitations which require somewhat kludgy hacks to store and access files directly on the iPhone).

All of this is done with no more technical knowledge than that required to set up a Wi-Fi network (a no-brainer with the Airport Express in my setup), along with the ability to use the simple sharing built into iTunes and the Mac.

So is this what a digital book library will look like? Will my mostly-linear extrapolation of existing technology be leap-frogged by something totally new?

New Sony Readers: Coming Soon!

ABT (via MobileRead) is listing two new models of the Sony Reader as “available for pre-order.” The new machines appear to have specifications similar to the current model, but with double the internal storage (160 books versus 80 on the previous model), improved control layout, and two color styles to choose from.

The current Sony Reader PRS-500 (left) and two new PRS-505 models in silver and blue.
click to enlarge

Judging from appearance, the new control layout seems improved over the current model. The menu (back) button has been separated from the cursor control, fixing the previous non-intuitive combination. The rough-edged and unpleasant-to-use cursor joystick has been replaced with a smoother-looking rocker switch. The numbered buttons are on the right, so they will align with corresponding menu choices when shown on-screen in the default vertical orientation. The secondary paging buttons are now positioned on the right, too, so they can be accessed without interference from the case’s left flap.

The software is still Windows only, so Mac users and others will still have to manage files via third-party software or a flash memory card. However, the Windows software is now listed as version 2.0 which presumably corresponds to improvements in the rather clunky 1.x software.

At first glance, these seem like nice incremental improvements. Unfortunately, the price remains $299. Sony’s experiments with reduced prices (I bought mine for $49) were apparently more about clearing old inventory than a precursor to a general price drop. The new units’ pricing remains steep enough to ensure that the Reader will remain a niche product.

According to the ABT web site, availability is expected in October 2007.

Update: The PRS-505 was apparently made public earlier than intended. ABT has since taken down the related product and search pages. The two models (silver and blue) are still viewable in the Google Cache.

Related Posts

New Sony Reader (PRS-505) Now Available
Sony Reader and the Mac: An Unfinished Story
Sony Reader: Mammal or Dinosaur?

iPhone and iPod: Dense Pixels, Happy Eyes

Yesterday’s announcement of the third-generation iPod Nano and iPod Touch was another step in Apple’s accelerating march toward sharper displays and resolution independence. The third-generation Nano now has the highest pixel density in the Apple lineup, at 204 pixels per inch (ppi). By comparison, the iPhone comes in at 160 ppi with the new iPods Touch and Classic at a nearly-identical 163 ppi. Meanwhile, Apple’s high-end 30″ Cinema Display is at 102 ppi.

Subjectively, the iPhone’s display is clearly superior to any computer display I’ve ever seen. While this is a function of many factors, the high pixel density plays a huge part in creating the extraordinarily tack-sharp perception. While the Nano’s screen is too small to be useful for reading, it seems completely within Apple’s philosophy and technical capability to extend the high-pixel-density feature to other devices, including the Mac and the hypothetical iTablet. After all, multimedia and typography are in Apple’s DNA, while resolution independence is an announced feature in the next version of Mac OS X and perhaps a current feature in today’s iPhone/Touch OS X.

I wanted to visualize more objectively just how these increased densities are affecting the reading experience. The images below are enlargements of PDF text (from my latest WOWIO ebook project) rendered in Photoshop to simulate different pixel densities. Be sure to click on the image to see the enlargement so you can see the full effect.

While rendering on the actual devices will be different, these images can still give an idea of the relative quality of the text displays. The smooth and crisp type renderings at the higher pixel densities correlate directly into perceived text clarity and reading comfort. Today’s common complaints about fuzzy, headache-inducing screen text — one of the most persistent obstacles to reading long-form text in digital format — are literally being smoothed away.

Related Posts
iPhone and eBooks: The Video
iPhone and eBooks: An Early Flirtation
Books v. eBooks: the Reader’s Experience

Sony Reader and the Mac: An Unfinished Story

I find that I’m turning to the Sony Reader more and more often as my primary ebook reader for books that are mainly text (as opposed to those with extensive embedded images or comics). Its compactness, fast start time and long battery life are turning out to be more important than the superior display of the bigger and heavier X61T Tablet PC.

While I’ve loaded the Sony Connect software on the Windows-based X61T, my MacBook Pro is my primary machine and I prefer to manage the Reader’s content from there. While Sony’s software only supports Windows, several workarounds exist which make the Mac and the Sony Reader a viable combination. One option is to run the Sony software by installing Windows on the Mac via BootCamp, Parallels or Fusion. Mssv tested the Mac/Parallels/Windows combination, and found it to be completely functional (with the notable exception of performing firmware upgrades). In this post, I’ll take a look at other methods which don’t require Windows at all.

The Sony Reader’s memory card slot.

Memory Stick or SD Card

The simplest (and most reliable) option for adding books to the Reader is via a flash memory card. Files on a card are automatically added to the Reader’s catalog when loaded via the device’s memory card slot.

Docudesk PRS Browser v1.0

This free download from Docudesk provides more options for browsing and file management of a Reader connected to a Mac’s USB port. The software is stable and it successfully reads the contents of the connected Reader’s internal memory. Files can be added by dragging and dropping from the Finder or browsing a dialogue box. Files can also be deleted with a single click. Flash cards in the Reader can also be read, but only the top-level directory is accessible — subdirectories can be seen but not opened.

PRS Browser’s minimalist window.

PRS Browser’s other main limitation is in its minimal display — it only shows the file names of the books rather than the book titles stored in the files’ metadata. Other metadata like author name or file size are not available. The file-name-only display works fine for books with fairly meaningful file names. For example, Jane Rule’s Contract with the World downloads from WOWIO with a file name like ContractwithWorld_186849.pdf, but cryptically-named files — like those from Sony’s Connect store, with singularly unhelpful names like CBUS125110000B00U.lrf — can be a problem. In these cases, the files are best renamed in the Finder before attempting transfers to the Reader via PRS Browser.

libprs500 v.0.3.106

This open source project from Kovid Goyal is available as a free download for Windows, Mac OS X and various Linux distributions.

The libprs500 library window.

As a version 0.3 product, the software is clearly not yet complete and can’t be expected to be fully stable. Indeed, it crashed several times in the course of my testing. However, the software promises to be a very full-featured package, with full file management options, metadata display and editing, and even file conversion capabilities into the Sony’s native reflowable .lrf format. That last feature includes the capability (due in the next update) to download, reformat and index the contents of a web site (for example, the New York Times could be downloaded, converted to the Reader and read off-line). Development appears to be moving along steadily, with version 0.4 due in late September.

In its current early-development release, libprs500 can display and edit the full metadata (title, author, file size and modification date) for books on the Mac and in the Reader’s internal memory and card slot. Files can be copied from the Mac to the Sony’s internal storage. Books in the memory card slot can be viewed and deleted but not yet added or copied.

While it clearly isn’t ready for day-to-day use, libprs500 is definitely worth watching as its development continues.

Related Posts
eBook Reader Technology Scorecard
Sony Reader: Mammal or Dinosaur?
Books v. eBooks: the Reader’s Experience

Vista Nags, Bugs and the Reader’s Experience

I’ve been been quite the curmudgeon lately on the Windows Vista problems that are spoiling my ebook-reading experience on the Lenovo X61T.

Affirmation is nice at times, and in that vein, a Microsoft guy has posted an admirably honest list enumerating the peskiest of Vista’s interface quirks (via Fake Steve Jobs).

To these annoyances, add the serious wake-from-sleep bug(s) that have forced me to reboot the system three four times in the last three weeks. Never knowing if the system will actually work definitely puts a damper on my reading and other tasks, and being forced to work around the problem by waiting for a full shutdown/restart cycle every time I use the machine isn’t a whole lot better.

These apparently aren’t isolated incidents, as evidenced by the many frustration-filled discussions of Vista’s deep-rooted problems. The upcoming SP1 update is supposed to address certain sleep-related issues, but I would be very surprised if the fundamental interface design problems are ever fixed.

So is the bloom off the rose on Vista and the X61T? Yes. I haven’t thrown it out the window yet, but I am sometimes sorely tempted. It’s a shame, because actually reading ebooks is a pleasure on this machine but software problems are tarnishing the experience.

eBook Reader Technology Scorecard

I’ve been evaluating different ebook reading technologies over the last months, and I think it’s time for an interim report card on just how suitable the different technologies are for the purpose. My ratings are extrapolated a bit to try to account for the capabilities of a category as a whole rather than any specific device, but it’s obviously an inexact art. I’ll also put out the immediate disclaimer that this discussion is based on a limited sample of devices which aren’t wholly representative of the range of available gear. For fun, though, I’ll even include hypothetical ratings on a machine that doesn’t yet exist — my dream ebook machine, the mythical iTablet or iSlate. This not-so-farfetched device is like an iPhone grown up into a slick, touch-driven, Mac OS X tablet computer.

These hardware categories — desktop, laptop, tablet, dedicated reader, mobile and mythical iTablet — are rated on six criteria that affect the reading experience:

Compatibility refers to a machine’s ability to open ebook files and other documents in various formats. Are proprietary and DRM’d formats supported? Are workarounds required or even available for opening these formats?

Form Factor is a qualitative measure of how comfortable the devices are for reading. Does it pass the reading-on-the-couch test? How about the even more rigorous trial of reading in bed?

Portability is an indicator of size and weight. Is it something that I’ll want to casually carry around, or will I need to consider trade-offs to save room in my messenger bag or, more importantly, to save my back?

Display is a subjective measure of how good the screen is for the purpose of reading. This encompasses hard data like color, screen resolution and screen size, but it also is a subjective measure of how comfortable the reading experience is and how well it renders and displays text.

Battery Life is an indicator of how often the device needs to be charged on a typical usage cycle. This includes drain from other uses, so if I typically use a laptop for general computing and use up the battery, this is included in the measure. A dedicated device is, by definition, largely used for a single purpose and thus would have fewer other applications leeching from its usable batter life.

Experience is an effort to sum up all of the subjective and sometimes intangible qualities in a single number. This includes the device’s feel in-hand, negative distractions from the reading experience (such as system demands for attention — did someone say “Vista?”), interface usability and even that ultimate example of subjectivity— the fun factor.

The Scorecard

feature	desktop	laptop	tablet	reader	mobile	iTablet
compatibility	10	10	10	4	6	7
form factor	1	3	8	8	6	10
portability	0	5	7	9	10	8
display	9	9	9	5	3	10
battery life	n/a	5	6	10	8	7
experience	1	4	6	6	5	9

Notes

Compatibility ratings are high for the general-purpose computers, since they can generally handle anything that can be thrown at them. One major exception is the lack of support for some proprietary DRM formats on the Mac.

The hypothetical iTablet.

The mythical iTablet would have limited initial support for these formats, but being a general-purpose and relatively open machine, software could be developed for the purpose.

The form factor for the tablet PC gains a few points for a large and flexible display, but loses them again for being somewhat bulky compared to a dedicated reader. Conversely, the dedicated reader gains points for svelteness but loses a few for the relatively small screen. These factors are a wash for me, resulting in the tie score.

Display ratings for the mythical machine are higher than the other general-purpose machines based on the assumption that it will sport a superior display like that in the iPhone.

Text display on e-ink-based dedicated readers like the Sony Reader would be a point or two higher for text read in good light. The lower score in the table reflects poorer performance in marginal lighting conditions. Displays on LCD-based dedicated readers like the iLiad are closer to the ratings for tablet devices.

The tablet would rate higher on overall experience if it were just a little lighter and more compact, and if the operating system required less care and feeding. I ding the mobile devices for overall experience because I don’t like reading on tiny screens unless I have to, even given the superior screen and great ebook potential of something like the iPhone. Your mileage on this, like everything else on this table, will vary.

A Moving Target

I’d like to make this table a living document, updating it periodically as the technologies evolve and adding additional criteria as needed. If you have suggestions for additional measures, let me know. And if you violently disagree with my ratings — or just have your own ideas — I’d love to see your version of the table and the reasoning behind it!

Related Posts

Lenovo X61T: The Reading-on-the-Couch Test
Sony Reader: Mammal or Dinosaur?
eBook Readers: Looking for Just Right
iPhone and eBooks: the Video